NASA Aids in Damage Assessment Following Alabama Tornadoes

On Wednesday, April 27, a widespread and historic severe weather outbreak occurred across the southeastern United States, including numerous, significant, and long-track tornadoes across the state of Alabama, causing billions in state-wide damage. NASA's Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPoRT) Center at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. is helping in the aftermath of these severe storms by providing the National Weather Service (NWS) with unique NASA satellite data for observation and damage assessment.On May 19 from 3-4 p.m. EDT, members of the NASA SPoRT team will answer questions on these topics, to discuss how NASA is involved in weather forecasting research and their support of National Weather Service activities. Research meteorologists Andrew Molthan and Brad Zavodsky will be joined by Applications Integration Meteorologist Brian Carcione of the National Weather Service Forecast office in Huntsville, Alabama and available to answer your questions, to learn more about SPoRT and NASA's activities in support of local severe weather prediction and response.Joining the chat is easy! Simply return to this page http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/sport_chat.html a few minutes before the chat begins. The chat module will appear at the bottom of this page. After you log in, wait for the chat module to be activated, then ask your questions!

More About SPoRT

The SPoRT Center assists with damage assessments through application of high resolution imagery obtained from NASA polar-orbiting satellites, such as Terra and Aqua. SPoRT is using these capabilities and data sets to assist the NWS in the severe storms that occurred in the Tennessee Valley, such as the recent historic April 27 outbreak.During severe weather, the SPoRT Center provides total lightning data to forecasters via the North Alabama Lightning Mapping Array, useful for monitoring storm severity and potentially increasing lead time for hail, wind, and tornadoes. The SPoRT Center provides training and support to the NWS in the use of total lightning data to aid in the prediction of short-term severe weather events.

The SPoRT Center continues to investigate new data sets and data assimilation techniques to improve weather predictive capabilities using high resolution weather forecast models. Improved forecast models increase the awareness of severe weather likelihood, providing additional lead time for public advisories and other preparedness activities.